Province imposes contracts on teachers, school boards

Province imposes contracts on teachers, school boards

(KAWARTHA LAKES) Local public elementary and high school teachers now have a contract, but it’s not the one they had hoped for after Education Minister Laurel Broten invoked powers given to her via Bill 115.
On Thursday (Jan. 3), Ms Broten announced the Province would immediately implement collective agreements for all teachers and support staff that meet the Province’s fiscal targets while protecting the classroom experience and the gains made in education. School boards and unions had until Dec. 31 to submit tentative agreements to the Ministry for approval, however, only 65 locally negotiated and ratified agreements crossed the minister’s desk. (This does not include those that have received an extension until Jan. 14 for local ratifications.) The remaining groups will now have to comply with the two-year contract - retroactive to Sept. 1, 2012 and expiring Aug. 31, 2014 - that includes a two-year wage freeze, but allows new teachers to move up the salary grid starting in February, cuts sick days from 20 to 10 and ends the practice of cashing them in at retirement.
The latter item was seen as a $1.4 billion liability. Ms Broten’s deal grandfathers the practice, allowing teachers with vested sick days - usually those on the job for 10 years or more - to have a maximum of 250 days paid out at today’s rate upon retirement. Those with non-vested sick days - those with less than 10 years on the job - will be paid right away for any days they have accumulated, but only at 10 cents on the dollar. The Province has already set aside the $26 million needed for this; made easier by the anticipation that limiting raises will save about $800 million over two years.
Having contracts forced on them isn’t sitting well with both the Trillium Lakelands’ Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF). Either is the fact the minister plans to have Bill 115 scrapped after contracts are ratified.
“We were concerned all throughout the fall over what Bill 115 represented,” said District 15 OSSTF president Peter Carroll citing, at its core, the legislation is a “direct attack” on collective bargaining. “The Bill gives tremendous powers [to the education minister] and, yesterday, the government used those powers.”
Trillium Lakelands’ ETFO president Steve Colliver agrees, calling Ms Broten’s decision to repeal Bill 115 a “bizarre” concept.
“Ram through a piece of legislation so that you can impose a contract, and then repeal the law as soon as you put it to use. Surely that would be a prime indication that it is a deeply flawed - and perhaps even illegal - law in the first place,” stated Mr. Colliver. “I can’t believe the approach used by this government. Teachers have been unionized for almost 100 years and have never had a contract imposed.”
Mr. Colliver has been personally involved in bargaining for every single collective agreement ever reached between the local public school board and its elementary teachers. All have been settled without the need for strike action.
“Until now of course. The difference being that we have been allowed to negotiate with our employer in the past, and we are not allowed to do so under the provisions of Bill 115,” he continued. “The minister’s suggestion that the contracts she is imposing under Bill 115 are ‘collective agreements’ is ludicrous. There was never any attempt by the government to hold fair and respectful negotiations...successful bargaining is done through the art of compromise - not the simple imposition of one side’s will on the other.”
While many hope the Province’s action means the return of extra-curricular activities and other volunteer efforts by teachers both men are doubtful.
There also remains a good deal of work to be done before the end of January.
Mr. Carroll said OSSTF Local leaders like himself will meet to discuss the “next steps” needed in light of the mandated, “discouraging” contracts.
Likewise, the local school board will touch base with both unions to discuss the process of implementing the contracts.
“We do not know what the next steps our local OSSTF and ETFO will be taking in response to the contracts,” said board chairperson Karen Round. “There is a lot of work to be done.”
In the interim, the Board has included the matter on its Tuesday (Jan. 8) Committee of the Whole meeting agenda and is meeting with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 997 on Friday (Jan. 11) to discuss the ratification of the tentative agreement reached between CUPE and the Province, late last month.